The truth about coronavirus patents

Numerous social media posts claim that coronavirus is known for years and there are patents covering the virus and possible vaccines.

This confusion is due to the lack of information about virus in general. The term “coronavirus” actually refers to a broad family of virus, which includes the SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. The recent outbreak of respiratory disease in Wuhan was caused by 2019-nCoV.

The mentioned patents (e.g. US 7,220,852 B1) actually refer to other types of coronavirus, different from 2019-nCoV.

Simoes-IP (sip@simoes-ip.com.br) is working to debunk misinformation shared on social media.